Fortune's Surprise Engagement

At the sound of her sister’s no-nonsense tone, Olivia removed her palms from her eyes and forced her eyes open. For the love of God, her head was about to split wide open.

“It’s Sophie,” Zoe said. “She’s missing. We can’t find her anywhere.”

It took a moment for Olivia to piece together last night’s events: the drinks, her spilling the beans to her sisters about how she felt about their parents’ relationship—or lack thereof—Sophie getting upset and running off.

“What do you mean she’s missing?” Olivia asked. “Maybe she went out for coffee?”

Every word was a nail in her brain. Her mouth was so dry her lips stuck to her gums like they’d been pasted together. She needed water. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to ask them if they could go look for Sophie and bring her back a bottle of ice-cold water.

“Do you think she’s in danger?” Olivia asked.

Rachel and Zoe looked at each other.

“No,” Rachel said. “Otherwise we would’ve called the police.”

“All of her stuff is gone,” Zoe said. “She must have packed up and taken it with her. And I must’ve been sleeping deeply because I didn’t even hear her moving around.”

Zoe and Sophie had shared one room in the two-bedroom suite. Olivia and Rachel had shared the other one.

“Personally, I think she’s freaked out over what you said last night and has cold feet,” Zoe said. “You know, prewedding jitters. I get it. I totally understand. It happened to me. That’s why we need to find her and let her know the way she’s feeling is perfectly normal and everything will be all right.”

“Have you talked to Mason?” Olivia’s voice was scratchy. “I’ll bet she’s with him.”

Again, Rachel and Zoe exchanged a look.

“He just called. In fact, his call woke Zoe up,” Rachel said. “He was looking for Sophie.”

“Did you tell him she’s at her bachelorette party and that means no boys? He can live without her for a weekend.”

Zoe sighed. “Normally, I would’ve told him that, but he said she’d left him a distraught message last night after he’d gone to bed. Apparently she said she needed to talk to him as soon as possible and he should call no matter the hour. Now she’s not picking up, and she hasn’t returned any of his calls or mine. We’re worried about her, Liv.”

Olivia regarded her sisters, who were still in their pajamas. “I’m guessing you haven’t gone out to see if she’s down in the café? She might’ve just gone out for some breakfast or some fresh air.”

Olivia could have used both right about now.

She forced herself into a sitting position, trying to ignore the daggers that stabbed at her brain and filled it with a soup-like fog that refused to let her think straight.

As if reading her mind, Rachel produced a bottle of cold water and a wet washcloth.

“You look like hell,” she said. “You’re positively green. Drink this and wipe your face with this cool cloth.”

Olivia did as she was told. Only then did she realize she was still fully dressed in the outfit she’d worn last night. At least she was dressed. She might have smirked at the thought, if the reaction wouldn’t have hurt so badly. Of course she was dressed. She’d only kissed Alejandro. She hadn’t slept with him. The memory of him walking her up to the suite and the two of them indulging in a delicious good-night kiss right outside the door flooded back. Her sisters didn’t need to know about that. Besides, they had more important things to worry about with Sophie going AWOL.

“What time did you get in last night?” Zoe asked.

Olivia took a long drink from the water bottle. When she was finished, she said, “I don’t know. Late. You all jumped ship and left me with a tray full of drinks to polish off. It took a while.”

Zoe frowned. “I’m sorry we left. We were concerned about Sophie after your little down-with-love tirade.”

Tirade?

It hadn’t exactly been a tirade. It’d been honesty.

“Yeah, well, I wish you wouldn’t have kept pushing me to offer love and marriage advice. I felt like you backed me into a corner.”

The sisters sat in silence for a moment.

“Of course, the drinks didn’t help matters,” Olivia said. “They sort of greased the hinges on propriety’s trapdoor and once the words started spilling out, there was no stopping them. I feel bad that Sophie was so upset. It wasn’t what I intended.”

The washcloth had warmed up. Olivia held it by the corners and waved it back and forth to cool it off before pressing it pressed to her eyes again.

Visions of kissing Alejandro played out on the screen in her mind’s eye. She was so glad her sisters hadn’t pressed her about whether or not she’d polished off the remaining drinks alone. The thought of those Fuzzy Handcuffs made her stomach churn, and the thought of trying to explain what happened with Alejandro tied it up in knots.

Olivia looked at her sisters. “Was Sophie here when you went to sleep?”

“She was,” said Zoe.

“In fact, I thought she was out like a light when I finally turned in. I tried to talk to her before she went to bed, but she said she was fine and just wanted to go to sleep. So I went in and took a shower and then I was on the phone with Joaquin for a while. When I came out of the bathroom, she was snuggled down under the covers. I thought she was just missing Mason.”

“Me, too,” said Rachel. “But that’s why we’re concerned that he can’t get in touch with her. Where do you think she would go?”

“So obviously you two haven’t even been out of the room,” Olivia said.

“No, not yet,” Zoe said. “We hated to wake you since you obviously played a little hard last night.” She gestured to Olivia’s outfit.

“Not really. It’s not as if I did the walk of shame this morning.”

But she had kissed Alejandro. The thought made her already knotted, churning stomach clench a little bit more. She put her hand on her belly to quell it.

It would’ve been easy to give in to lust and do a lot more than kiss Alejandro last night, but she hadn’t. Actually, she’d tried, but he’d been the gentleman.

Even so, the essence of him clung to her. Like he had gotten into her pores. If she shut her eyes, there was Alejandro invading her thoughts the same way he had invaded her dreams. Her fingers found their way to her lips as she remembered every delicious detail about their kisses.

Olivia had a lot of faults, but getting blackout drunk wasn’t one of them. No matter how much she had to drink, she was always in control of herself. Sometimes it made her a little looser. She paused. Maybe looser wasn’t the best word in this particular situation. The Fuzzy Handcuffs had unshackled her inhibitions. That was a more apt description. The drinks had simply allowed her to experience a pleasure in which she might not have otherwise allowed herself to indulge. Yes. That was what’d happened.

She was more than willing to own her actions.

And in owning them, she had enough good sense to know kissing Alejandro last night was as far as things would go. She’d gotten him out of her system and it wouldn’t happen again. Of course not. She would be far too busy focusing on her bridesmaid’s duties this wedding week.

As fractured as the night had been with her sisters, it was still a girls’ weekend. Never mind how gorgeous Alejandro Mendoza was. She’d resisted him. She hadn’t bailed on her sisters to spend the night with him.

Even if her sisters had bailed on her.

With great care, Olivia swung her legs over the side of the bed. She put her feet flat on the floor, hoping that the effort would ground her and help her regain her sense of equilibrium. Instead, the room spun. She hated being hungover, but she’d done this to herself. She had no choice but to power through. Do the crime, do the time.

“You do look like hell,” Zoe said.

“I’m fine,” Olivia answered, pushing to her feet.